Metro East Sun

East St. Louis Head Football Coach Darren Sunkett recently called out Gov. J.B. Pritzker for holding up the Illinois high school football season.

On the steps of the state capital on Sunkett spoke to over 1,000 gather at a rally aimed at Pritzker. 

There is “a human virus… and that virus is called Governor Pritzker,” Sunkett said, according to WMAY. 

A crowd of more than 1,000 prep football supporters held a rally aimed at Pritzker.

A separate rally was held in Thompson Square in Chicago. 

All states bordering Illinois have allowed their prep football seasons to continue. 

"We can play team sports in Illinois just like our boarding States and 80% of the States in the Country!" Sunkett said on Twitter.

The rally comes in the wake of Pritzker announcing earlier this month that the prep football season was cancelled.

A wave of the state's top players have transferred in order to continue playing. 

Other high profile coaches, such as Sacred Heart Griffin’s Ken Leonard, the winningest coach in Illinois history, have also been pressuring Pritzker to allow kids to play football this fall.

Leonard has been helping coordinate the group of coaches, parents and players rallying across the state.

“We want on everybody to reach out to all their legislators in the next few days,” Leonard told Chicago’s Morning Answer hosts last week.

The Pritzker administration did not allow the prep football community a seat at the table when it came to weighing whether the football season should go on, according to Lincoln-Way East High School Head Football Coach Rob Zvonar.

Instead, through an executive order Pritzker assumed full control over the extracurricular sports schedule, which allows him to cancel high school sports at will.

"It is extremely disheartening that we cannot even get the Governor and Deputy Governor Jesse Ruiz of the Department of Education to even listen to us and consider reinstating Fall sports,” Zvonar told Prairie State Wire last week. “All safety precautions would be in place and this can be done successfully as the NFL, College, and ALL other Midwest States have proven. It is obvious that this is a decision based on politics and not what is best for the kids."

The Illinois High School Association’s recent request to resume control of the schedule was denied by Pritzker.

The cancellation of the football season came right as the Big Ten, including in-state members the University of Illinois and Northwestern University in Chicago, announced they would play college football this fall.